Ostend in the Netherlands?

Paul W

I have just discovered my relative John Harrison married a Catherine Sarastein Parkin in 1863, in England. In the census, her birth is recorded as being around 1834, at "Ostend, The Netherlands".

The only birthplace for this period in FamilySearch's Standard place name database is "Oostende, West Flanders, Belgium". So, two queries here. Firstly, why would a reasonably large location such as Ostend not have an anglicised version in the database and, secondly, would not Ostend have been within Belgium by 1830, or were parts of what is now Belgium still within The Netherlands until later on?

A third query concerns Catherine herself. She is shown as Catherine Sarastein Parkin in her marriage records and as Catherine Sarastein Theresa Harrison in her death certificate. I can find no reference to "Sarastein" in Google. It sounds Jewish, but "Theresa" certainly doesn't.

Any help on these queries would be greatly appreciated.

Adrien Kintziger

@Paul W

The Belgian break away from the Netherlands was not a one night effort.During the years between 1830 and 1839 the war made Ostend sometimes Dutch and sometimes Belgian, on top of that ,Ostend was a dependance of Brugge(Bruges) judicial,and statutory.It is a bit difficult to explain,but Brugge , in itself was a sort of state within the state, like say Kongo Free-state within Belgian Kongo or Transvaal in South Africa.Also, basically because of all this turmoil the files were one day Dutch the and other day Belgian again etc , etc....

So you will keep finding Belgian census and population data in Dutch record databases, and vice versa,not always their nationality would follow the person...but often did.To provide an example i will include a link to Openarch (open archives) (Dutch) to show that Sara Stein is a valid name both in Belgium and in the Netherlands -and your lead is correct, nearly all of them are of Jewish ancestry,...However i only used sara and Stein as search term, 'parkin' did not yield any result,as did Catherine.But this is only for one Dutch search engine/example

https://www.openarchieven.nl/search.php?top&archive=&name=sara+stein&number_show=10&sourcetype=&eventplace=&online=&relationtype=&sort=1&from=&until=&country=&eventtype=&start=30#filter

Adrien Kintziger

@Paul W

Additionally, i found the location of the files for Oostende, will provide the link this evening

Paul W

@Adrien Kintziger

Thank you so much for your response.

I had figured the development of Belgium as an independent nation would probably not have been that straightforward, so thank you for your insight over this and the specific situation regarding Ostend.

Yes, I would be most grateful if you could provide a link to the Oostende records, when you have time.

I came across Catherine as part of my research on the HARRISON family of Loughborough in Leicestershire. The John Harrison who married Catherine moved to the London area and married her in 1863. What has intrigued me is the way her middle name is recorded - as SARASTEIN, in both marriage and death records. Like you, I have found "Sara Stein" instances, but can find no other records showing the name recorded without a gap.

I last posted here when I had a query on my uncle's (by marriage) Dutch ancestry (the family came to London from Breskens) and had useful responses then, so am glad I returned here on these queries!

My own traceable ancestry is entirely English / Scottish, so I provide as much help I can in the England and British Isles groups. However, it does make things more interesting when I come across these "foreign" connections, found as part of my research into more distant relationships.

Paul W

After writing the above, I immediately came across entries for the PARKINS family in Family Tree (Catherine's maiden name is shown as both PARKIN and PARKINS in records) and from there discovered her mother was Catherine Cecilia HUBERT (born c1813). Only Catherine appears to have been born in Ostend, her other siblings having London / Middlesex births / baptisms recorded. Catherine Cecilia is shown as "Foreign" in the 1841 census, so I believe she might have married William Parkins in the Ostend area in the early 1830s. I tried the link you already posted (above), but didn't receive any relevant results for Parkins or Hubert events. William Parkins is shown as being born in Middlesex around 1811. Will continue trying to trace further records.

Adrien Kintziger

@Paul W

I took the liberty of shortcutting to the actual birthcertificate itself in the Ostend files.Her certificate is between pages 27 and 28 on the pdf, (slow build-patience),...and her father William Parking's occupation is mentioned as 'Seaman' so that explains the other foreign births as well.I will post the link to it here ,if you like a translate,i will translate also.I have no idea as for 'Sara Stein' or where that percolated ...

https://archief.oostende.be/file_uploads/17516.pdf

Paul W

@Adrien Kintziger

Again, many thanks for your help and responding so quickly. It appears her name has been registered as Celestina Theresia Catharina, which in itself would have not helped in any possibility of my finding this by myself. Yes, I would be most grateful for a translation of the part that would be subject to indexing: date and place of birth, etc., so I can record this under her Vitals detail in Family Tree.

Adrien Kintziger

@Paul W

I will translate it tomorrow or the day after, i have some workload now on similar items.Promised!

Adrie

Adrien Kintziger

@Paul W

Okay, here the translate..

At present time, the 22th of March 1834 at 11 hr in the morning before us , Jean De Winne Landsweert, mayor and civil servant of the city of Ostend(Oostende) did appear,..(Janine Huysman aged 27 midwife living here,who showed us a child of the female gender, born yesterday afternoon,from William Parkins aged 30 'seaman' .;and from his housewife,Catharina Cecilia Hubert aged 24 yrs,(i cannot read the occupation),and both living in this city and declaring to give the child the name Celestina Theresia Catharina; presentation is done in the presence of Leopoldus Tratseart aged 42 and blacksmith, and secondary, Jacobus De Looker aged 56 yrs, housemaster,both living here .;and after reading aloud the present deed,the midwife and witnesses signed along....(then signatures)

remark , the midwife is a mid-master(meester) indicating a man, i'm unsure about her/his given name.Not of importance anyway.

Take care!

Paul W

So grateful for your help here, Adrie. I can only find records up to 1847 relating to William & Catherine after there arrival (re-arrival of William) in England, but sea-faring individuals are often hard to track down, of course.

Please get in touch if you need any advice on English records: I'm no professional but have been working on the various branches of my family for nearly 40 years now, so am regularly able to find "elusive" records for those posting queries in Community relating to England.

I don't anticipate returning to this group too soon, but you never know...!

Many thanks again - Paul

Adrien Kintziger

@Paul W

Thanks , have fun!